I used to be in Africa and was involved in helping a local factory with a production of 1000tpd. However in my opinion this was too much. I would thus like to know which is the cheapest option of setting up a smallest cement factory in the Central African region.

The cheapest option to set up a cement factory in Africa would probably to use shaft kiln technology. However it depends what you mean by cheap. With a shaft kiln you will save on the kiln technology compared with a rotary kiln but you will still have all the costs for quarrying, crushing grinding and packing. It will still cost millions of dollars.

The NCB (National Council for Cement & Building Materials) in India publishes a number of Technology Digests, Monographs & Research Bulletins. At least 10 of these relate to vertical shaft kiln technology. Unfortunately I can't tell you which is the best. I would pick either Technology Digest 25, "CRI vertical shaft kiln mini cement plant technology", or Technology Digest 32, "CRI modern vertical shaft kiln cement plants".

I am interested in a good book for the vertical shaft kiln for cement technology. Can you help me for this? Thank you.